Tom Wichterman, owner on LionCrest, designed and made our original WOR t-shirt and we donate all proceeds to the work we are doing with displaced women and children in rural areas of Africa.

Talks are underway to create a new t-shirt featuring LionCrest and WOR, and part of the proceeds from this will also go to our cause.  We are very excited to work with Tom and the team over at LionCrest, and we will keep you posted.

To find out more about Wings of Refuge and our mission, please visit: www.wingsofrefugefoundation.org.

To find out more about Tom and LionCrest Apparel + Design, please visit: www.WEareLionCrest.com.

Our official Wings of Refuge t-shirt.

Make a donation to Wings of Refuge between now and Friday, February 12th and you will receive free merchandise!  Here are the levels:

Our hand-crafted jewelry line made with paper beads from the Lacan Kwite tribe of widowed women in Northern Uganda.

Wings of Refuge has teamed up with another non-profit, Paper to Pearls, to purchase paper beads made by a tribe of widowed women in refugee camps in Northern Uganda.

These amazing women hand-make beads out of any paper they can come by (newspaper, magazines, calendars, flyers, etc.) to try to scrape together a living for themselves and their children.  However, there is not a local market for jewelry in Uganda, as it is not a luxury many people can afford.  So, Wings of Refuge purchases the beads from these women to help support them, and we have created a jewelry line to showcase them and provide an international market.

We use only sterling silver and 14K gold, as well as natural accents such as bone, shell, pearl, nut, wood, stone and horn. Each piece of jewelry is completely unique, no two are the same.  Not only is this jewelry one-of-a-kind and helping widows, their children, and orphans in Africa, it’s a green product as it is made from recycled paper!

100% of the proceeds from the sale of this jewelry line goes to our Wings of Refuge Orphanage Project, whose goals are to properly care for, and educate, African orphans.  For more information, and how you can get involved, please visit: www.wingsofrefugefoundation.org.

One of few hospitals in Tanzania.

Here are a few relevant statistics, in Tanzania, to our cause:

- Population: 40 million

- 825 doctors in Tanzania

- Average household income/year: $340 USD

- 88% of the population lives under the international poverty line

- 186,000 children under the age of 5 die every year

- 22% of children under the age of 5 are moderately to severely underweight

- 38% of children under the age of 5 are moderately to severely stunted in their growth

- 31% of the population has access to sanitation facilities

- 16% of children under the age of five sleep under treated mosquito netting (Malaria is the 3rd leading cause of death in Tanzania)

- 1.4 million people are living with AIDS

- 2.6 million children aged newborn – 17 orphaned annually (1 million due to AIDS alone)

- 8% of children will enroll and attend secondary school (grade 6 and beyond)

For more information on how we are trying to combat some of these conditions, visit: www.wingsofrefugefoundation.org.

Organizing the multitude of donations we received last year for our trip.

Wings of Refuge is also looking for donations of supplies for our upcoming trip to Tanzania.  We bring the supplies to rural areas and give them to destitute families, orphanages, hospitals, schools and churches.  Wherever the need is.  Ideas for needed items are:

-Medical supplies (children/infant Tylenol, birthing kits, diabetes testing strips and meters, breast pumps, first aid items, antibiotics, etc.)

-Mosquito netting

-Shoes (Men, Women, Children and Infant)

-Clothes (especially newborn – 2T)

-Deflated soccer balls

-School supplies

-Plastic dishware

-Frisbees

-Blankets

-Books

-Cooking utensils

This is a very broad list… we take donations of all kinds.  For more information, please visit: www.wingsofrefugefoundation.org.

Asante!

Vice President/Director of Operations, Briana Larson, helping prepare the feast.

Wings of Refuge is looking for personal or corporate sponsorships for our spring trip to Tanzania this coming March.  During our trip, we will be scouting out an area in the valley between Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru, a place we have never been.  Here, there is a local parish in desperate need of an orphanage, as there are multitudes of orphans in this area, and nowhere to put them.  The church elders are doing their best to care for these children, but many are in dire need of medical care, and there are no funds to do this.  The parish has agreed to donate the land for the site.

Our goals for this trip are to secure the building site, meet with contractors and engineers to draw building plans, and establish relationships within the area.  One of the ways we like to build this relationship is to hold a large feast for everyone in the area to partake.  The estimation we have been given for turnout to this feast is roughly 800-1000.  The cost has been estimated for us at $1500-2000 USD.  We are looking for a personal or corporate sponsorship for this celebration, and we would love to provide you with ample pictures/videos of the feast upon our return for your own use/marketing.  We can even bring along signs/banners (if you are a company – and so wish) for the pictures/video.

We will also be visiting other rural areas of Tanzania, providing aid to other orphanages, schools and hospitals.  The cost for the whole trip (excluding the feast) is $13,500 USD.  If you would like to sponsor any portion of our trip, or for more information, please visit: www.wingsofrefugefoundation.org.

Asante Sana!

Saddened by what they experienced, Ashley and Briana came home and founded Wings of Refuge, a non-profit with goals to improve the living conditions and education of these forgotten children.  Since its incorporation, Ashley and Briana have worked diligently to grow the organization and have a scouting trip to Tanzania this coming March 2010 to secure a building site for an orphanage and possibly rehab an existing primary school.

For more information, or ways to help our cause, visit: www.wingsofrefugefoundation.org.